Page 16 of M.A.Y.A
“I usually get my best work done at night,” he said. “The dark is…underappreciated.”
Her smile was hesitant, but it eased some of the tension he felt. “The best part about the dark is that I get to see the stars again,” she replied. “I don’t know the last time I was actually able to look up and trace the constellations.”
Isaiah slowly lowered himself to the top step next to her. Even though he was dressed in jeans and a clean shirt instead of his naked skin, he still felt the slight hitch in her breath and her elevated heart rate. Her arousal was a balm to his ego.
It’s only going to get more intense until our time is up, baby.
“Tell me about your world,” he said. “About your dimension. What happened that you all had to live in bunkers?”
“The wars.” She pulled the sleeve of his button-down shirt over her arm to cover the metal plate. “I was a child when they began. First it was a fight for space exploration. A form of colonization. When that didn’t happen fast enough, then one country began invading another. The largest democracy fell. Allies became enemies, and every civilian was potentially exposed to the remnants of a nuclear attack. The government used funding that had been set aside for public assistance programs to build an intricate network of bunkers across the country, to protect humans from the war on the surface, and from the radiation and chemical waste that remained. The only problem was that not everyone was guaranteed room in a bunker. Out of hundreds of millions, two million people were selected.”
Isaiah could feel her sadness radiating off of her in waves. All he wanted to do was take the feeling away, to fight her demons for her. Instead, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and waited for her to finish. She instinctively leaned against his side.
“My family was one of the lucky ones,” she said quietly. “We were all asked to submit blood tests to ensure we were disease free before going into the bunker. It was horrific. A culling process. What I didn’t know at the time is that a group of scientists funded by the government agency Coalition for Political Peace were creating a team of super soldiers who possessed a rare blood type.”
“They found you because of your blood test,” Isaiah replied.
Maya nodded. “OQ+. It’s a mutation of the O blood type. They tracked me down just as we were getting ready to go to our permanent bunker. And the rest is history. I was captured, tortured, and stripped of my humanity.”
“Not all of it,” Isaiah said, his wolf in his voice. “I feel the humanity in you. My wolf feels it and calls to you.” He leaned down to sniff her hair. It had the fresh scent of the shampoo stocked in the safe house. Underneath this scent was something uniquely Maya’s: crushed cranberries with the hint of a wet metallic taste.
She turned her head, and their faces were inches apart. Her eyes were filled with a trust and vulnerability that had his wolf itching to do something, anything to protect his mate.
“Tell me about your dimension,” she said. “How did you become Alpha of the largest territory on the West Coast? Did you inherit it from someone?”
“A part of it is lineage,” Isaiah responded. “I would’ve had to fight for my position and prove myself to the Congress, but I was uncontested.”
“The Congress?”
He nodded. “That’s our governing body for shifters.” He smiled as he remembered the day that he assumed the role of pack Alpha.
“What?” She leaned back to watch his face.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me, please?”
He slowly began rubbing a hand down her arm. He couldn’t deny his mate. “I was just thinking about my parents. The day I became Alpha of our pack, they were prouder than I’d ever seen them before. My father? He was…well, annoyed that no one wanted to fight me for the role, which meant I couldn’t prove my strength that day. I’d never seen him smile like that before.”
“Are you close with your parents? Are they alive?”
He pulled her flush against his side and wrapped his arm around her. “Yes, we’re very close, and yes, they are also alive. Right now, they are roaming the world and getting as much travel in as they possibly can. There was always pack business when dad was Alpha. Now they're taking advantage of their freedom.”
There was a long beat of silence. He wondered if Maya was trying to imagine what it would feel like to have a family in her life again. “Are your parents mated?”
Isaiah nodded. “They were one of the lucky ones. They found each other in grade school and have been together ever since. My mother always knew the responsibilities that came with being Alpha because my father was marked at a young age. And my father knew my mother was for him, so he trained for his leadership role with the understanding that he’d always have a mate by his side.” Isaiah wished he could’ve found her when they were children. Maybe then it would be easier to understand his responsibility to both mate and pack instead of feeling so divided.
Maya began fiddling with the hem of his shirt that she wore. “You never planned on mating?”
He couldn’t lie to her. He wouldn’t lie to his mate. “No,” he said slowly. “I know the man that I am. With a mate, my number one priority would no longer be the pack, which was always my goal.”
There was another long stretch of silence between them. Their scents mingled, the sides of their hips pressed together, and the sounds of crickets and nocturnal creatures rustled through the forest.
“What happens if mates don’t claim each other?” she asked. “Is that ever a possibility?”
A sick sense of dread pooled in his belly. He had to consciously restrain himself from tightening his hold around her shoulders. “Finding a mate is a gift, and the endless opportunity for happiness outweighs any fears. But if a claiming ceremony doesn’t occur at the end of a two-week period, the shifter half may become a lone wolf.”
He heard the rapid increase of her heartbeat before her alarm went off with a warning that she was stressed.
